oh the places you'll go beautiful boy {2015}

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oh the places you'll go beautiful girl {2015}

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we heart preschool

Last summer I felt so apprehensive about preschool... for the simple reason that I wasn't really ready to let my first-born baby go just yet. He was more than ready. We knew we had chosen a preschool that we were 100% happy with. But caring for him had been my job for his entire life, and I felt so weird about missing out on so much of his day-to-day life, of his development, and all the cuddles and smiles and laughs that he'd be having that I didn't get to be a part of.

To say our little man has blossomed this past year would be an understatement. Preschool has given him, and us, everything we had hoped for and more. It has prepared him, and me, for the even bigger step of 'big school' looming on the horizon. It has shaped him and moulded him in such lovely ways.

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preschool class of 2015

This past weekend our beautiful boy graduated from his preschool. It was a lovely celebration of his time there, and a day that made him feel super proud of himself, and us even prouder of the little boy he is becoming.

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from the other side

Handing your children over to another person and walking away is always hard. We all know that it is part of them growing up, part of us growing as parents too, and that it is necessary; but it's hard. Because for so long, when they are teeny, we make every single painstaking decision for them. The decisions feel so hard and so scary at first, and like such a massive responsibility that we're constantly terrified we might get wrong. But over time we get used to making all those choices, to always being there to love, to cuddle, to teach, to discipline, to know that everything in their little world is just the way we would like it to be.

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four and a half months

Four and a half months... that is the time we have left with life as we know it. The countdown is on and before I know where I am at I will be packing off my biggest baby to start big school and my littlest baby to start preschool. 

I have this overwhelming feeling of time running away from me, an all too familiar feeling since becoming a parent it would seem. Time keeps racing on, and right now I feel like I'm desperately grabbing at its tail, willing it to slow down. 

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nobody puts baby in a corner

Right from the word go, I thought about the part birth order would play in shaping my children. There are long running jokes in my family about how my little brother got away with murder, but how I always had to do things the best. I'm very eager to please, whereas my brother is more independent. I have no doubt that your place in the family pecking order shapes your personality, and I was intrigued as to how it would mould my own children.

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happy second birthday beautiful girl

And just like that...

another year gone.

Our baby girl is two,

and really not a baby at all anymore.

The past year has seen you totally blossom,

from a crawling, babbling baby

into the walking, talking little lady you are now.

With every single day it seems like more of your personality shines though,

and you really are such an adorable and funny little character.

You're such a mixture of independent and needy,

gentle and sensitive but crazy and tough,

a girly little ballet dancer with a love of fairies

and also a cheeky, troublesome little monkey with a fearless daredevil side.

And I am totally enchanted by every little bit of you.

You are my ray of sunshine.

A source of so many smiles and laughs.

Just about the happiest little lady I've ever know.

You completely light up our world.

I love you with all my heart my lovely beautiful girl.

Happy second birthday.

xxx

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oh the places you will go

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switched off

One of the little downsides of summer with small children

is that the lighter mornings often mean earlier wake ups.

Our children are, on the whole, fantastic sleepers,

but some mornings they get disturbed by the over enthusiastic dawn chorus

and the fact that it looks like midday by 6am.

Anytime after 6am I can just about deal with,

after 7am is the norm,

and any time with a 5 at the beginning is still night time if you ask me.

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our gang

Ever since he was born

my beautiful boy and I have had a little gang.

It felt like him and me against the world for a long time.

We let Daddy join our gang sometimes 

when we was home in the evenings and at weekends,

but we spent most of our time together as a pair,

I did everything for him

and he was my entire world.

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twenty months new

Twenty months seemed like such a big age for our little girl.

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nineteen months new

You were such a funny and cheeky little thing.

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eighteen months new

Eighteen months old,

officially a proper toddler now,

and just the best little girl ever!

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happy third birthday beautiful boy

Your last two birthday flew round at a heck of a rate,

but my goodness this one seems to have crept up on me

even faster still.

You're three!

THREE!!!

That little tiny baby boy,

who I was terrified and elated to bring home from the hospital,

who taught me how to be a Mummy,

and showed me about a love I never could have imagined,

that tiny baby boy is three.

That tiny baby boy is certainly not tiny anymore,

although he does still like to be my baby occasionally

when he's wrapped up in a towel fresh from the bath

and he insists on being rocked and cuddled like he was all the time ago.

For a split second, it's almost like I'm right back there.

But I wouldn't trade that baby for the amazing little boy you have become

and are becoming more and more with every day.

You blow me away daily

with the things that you've learnt,

with the details you notice,

with your incredible memory,

with your understanding and kindness and sensitivity,

with your big chocolate eyes,

with your gorgeous cheeky smile,

and with the fact I get to raise you and love you and call you mine.

You make me prouder than I could ever have thought possible.

I said it on your first and second birthdays,

but it's still one hundred percent true;

you rock my world.

So happy birthday my super cool, super amazing little man.

I love you with all my heart.

x x x

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on the cusp

As parents we know only too well

that children seem to grow up really fast.

That in what seems like the blink of an eye;

they go from bump to baby to toddler to child.

I can't speak for any older than that

but I have no doubt that it continues at that rate.

Parenthood feels a bit like you're living your life on a roller coaster,

it's fast, it's relentless, it has ups and downs

and much as you might like it to just slow down a bit,

it won't happen, can't happen,

it will keep racing forward.

17

your thirty-fifth month

There was a big birthday looming on the horizon.

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his next steps

We are in the very fortunate position 

that since our son was born

I have been able to stay at home with him.

I have relished every second with him

watching him change and grow

watching him learn new skills.

I've been there for first steps and first words

and I wouldn't trade that for anything.

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fourteen months new

Your fourteenth month saw some big changes.

11

my motherhood

Ever since that all important p-word

showed up on a pregnancy test 

on that crazily exciting morning in June 2010;

I have been a mother.

And ever since that moment,

motherhood has been both my biggest weakness and my greatest strength.

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